Misconceptions about lucid dreaming

I didn't see a thread about this, so I guess I'll start one. I often see a lot of misguided information floating around the internet regarding lucid dreaming.

One specific thing caught my eye today. A friend of mine was looking at something on the computer, a website called 9gag. I glanced over his shoulder and began to read it too. Apparently it was a rage comic regarding lucid dreaming and more specifically, sleep paralysis. The picture can be found here:

9GAG - Lucid dreaming can be dangerous.

At first I said "oh, sleep paralysis..." but as I began to read, I noticed that the whole thing was getting derailed as it went on to talk about how your body can be abducted by spirits when you enter SP. :roll: Then later on in the comments some people say they have friends who practice lucid dreaming who use "magic for protection."

Has anyone else seen falsified media or heard false information in general regarding lucid dreaming?

This seems to be a jerk. But for sure there are a lot of people out there believing this

I pretty much read/hear from any friends I have that are of a faith (Christian mainly) that it's occult... Which, quite frankly, I believe to be a load of bull.

As a Christian myself (don't judge - get to know me and you'll see I'm quite different and your throats will remain un-shoved from my beliefs) I tend to stay away from things aforementioned... People that spout this nonsense in my direction really don't have a clue what lucid dreaming actually is. If I ask them they come back with some answer about God which is totally irrelevant and just completely avoid giving me a proper answer.

I'm pretty sure they consider themselves better than everybody else. :?

Not really media, but my mom seems worried when I tell her about such stuff. Shes like, "Omg it sounds like your on drugs!" I'm like, "Well that's kind of the natural state so..." She thinks I'm putting my body into these unhealthy drugged mind states, even though we ALL go through SP and dreaming every night lol.

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Originally Posted by hassman789

Not really media, but my mom seems worried when I tell her about such stuff. Shes like, "Omg it sounds like your on drugs!" I'm like, "Well that's kind of the natural state so..." She thinks I'm putting my body into these unhealthy drugged mind states, even though we ALL go through SP and dreaming every night lol.

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To be fair, LDing has been associated with the occurrence of gamma waves (around 40Hz) in certain areas of the brain.

This site is full of them, just look around.

Yea I look at 9gag occasionally and I've noticed a lot of lucid dreaming posts going around that are misinformed and bogus. A lot of people seem to claim that they try lucid dreaming and then end up having nightmares which pushes them to avoid ever trying it again which makes me sad. At least it's getting the word out to people and maybe some will think to look into it for themselves to find out the truths about it.

Well after being into lucid dreaming for like 10 years, my mom mentions something about a lucid dream that she had or something. And I asked her if she knew what it means out of curiosity (because apparently some of my friends had misconceptions as well). Sure enough she thought it had to involve some sort of dream control, or some spiritual thing or whatever. I told her the simple definition (apparently I like to elaborate to people when I discuss lucid dreams) and she's like "oh I have those all the time".

But yeah, I think knowing about lucid dreaming for so long, it's hard for my brain to grasp that someone else couldn't understand the concept. It just seems like a simple concept to me. It doesn't seem strange, or spiritual in nature. It's just realizing your current setting is in a dream, it would be the same as realizing your current dream is taking place inside of a school before you went lucid.

Don't worry... you're not the only believing LD'er out there. But I do tend to avoid discussing with my Christian brothers as it is too easy to judge someone without knowledge. Heck, 6 months ago I might have been worried about it being magic or occultish, so I can forgive 'em their caution.

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Originally Posted by LucidDreamGod

(because apparently some of my friends had misconceptions as well)

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I casually mentioned lucid dreaming to my friend a while back, and now that he's seen this I hope he doesn't think I'm crazy or something. Not that that's really important anyway. :shadewink: